Daniel Bear

Neuroscience

Stanford University

I'm a postdoc at Stanford trying to understand the links between artificial and biological intelligence – while they're both still around. In my past life (graduate school) I studied the sense of smell, the search for meaning in our chemical environment. Above all, I want to know how both evolution and experience shape the ways we perceive the world.

Illustration by Allan Lasser. Waymo car photograph by Grendelkhan

Artificial intelligence isn't a 'black box.' It's a key to studying the brain

Algorithms can help us see how our unconscious processes work – if we understand their language

Daniel Bear

How machine learning is helping neuroscientists understand the brain

An expert argues that neuroscience is using the wrong metaphors

Daniel Bear
When you think about it, the idea that we assemble colored pigments on sheets of canvas into patterns that resemble the faces of people we love is pretty wild. *hits bong*

Collage by Allan Lasser

Here's what happened when researchers raised monkeys who never saw a face

We may not be hardwired to recognize faces after all

Daniel Bear